THE Syks, those people whom we have represented as nearly destroyed under Feroh-syur, and who in the sequel had availed themselves of Mir-mann8’s neglect and of the extortion­ary administration of his officers to associate with their sect a great number of farmers, commenced now to raise their heads. Grown exceedingly numerous, and sensible of the weakness of the present Government, as well as little intimidated by the name of the Abdali-king, whom they knew to be far off, they assembled in battle-array, and falling upon the Abdali Governor left at Lahor, they killed him, took possession of the city, Ravages of the Syks, who proclaim an Emperor of their own. and, not yet satisfied, they proclaimed a certain Chinta, a man from among themselves, Emperor. They made him sit upon a throne, struck money in his name, overran the whole province of Lahor, took possession of it, and made it a point to torment the Mussulmen by every means in their power. Intelligence of this revolution having been transmitted to Candahar, the Abdali-king resolved to make another expedition into Hindo­stan, and this was his seventh and last. It took place in the year 1175. But as the territory of Lahor was known to be the spot where the Abdalies, first of all, landed in their expeditions towards Hindostan, the Syks thought proper to evacuate it entirely; and ??ing to the country of Rohy, a district of very difficult access, they took possession of a very strong fort in it, and assembled there from all parts, to the number of two lacs of men, cavalry and infantry. But this did not deter the Abdali-king. Informed of their retreat, as well as of their numbers, he measured ninety cosses of ground in two days*, and falling upon those free-booters the moment he was least expected, he drew smoke from their breasts. About twenty thousand of them became food to his famished and thirsty sabre; but the booty was immense, and beyond all computa­tion. After this victory, seeing no enemy in the field, he put every thing to fire and sword in that country, which had associated with those miscreants; and marching back, he planted his victorious standards in the territory of Lahor, where he employed his time in quieting and regulating that country. Meanwhile he dispatched an Abdali, called Noor-eddin-qhan, But are defeated in a bloody battle by the D8r­ranies or Abdalies. a near relation of his Vezir, towards Cashmir, with orders to bring the Syks of that country into order and submission. That country was then in the hands of Djiven the Syk. This man, born at Cab8l, of a Catri tribe, had been a writer and an accountant in some office under Shah-veli-qhan, Vezir to the Abdali-king, who sent him sometime after to enforce a pay­ment due by Mir-mann8, Governor of Lahor. It was in the year 1167. But Abdollah-qhan having been ordered to repair to Cashmir to take possession of that country, which still acknowledged the auhtority of Alemghir the Second, Emperor of Hinodstan, that General who succeeded in this expedition, dismissed the Indian Governor, and appointed in his stead, Qhodja C8tchec, giving at the same time the management of the revenue to the Syk Djiven, who thereby became Divan or Intendant of the province. After these regulations, he left the new Governor a body of Afghans, and returned to his master. But hardly was he departed when troubles arose in Cashmir; in which Djivan the Syk, having been deeply concerned, he com­menced by killing the Commander of the Afghan Troops, after which he confined, and then banished from Cashmir, Qhodja C8tchec himself. At the same time he applied to the Vezir of Hindostan, Umad-el-mulk, requesting to have the patents of the Government of Cashmir in his own name, and these being granted without difficulty, the new Governor re-established everywhere the Hindostany government, ordered money to be coined, and the Qh8tbah to be pronounced, in the name of Alemghir the Second. After this he took possession of the revenue office, sent his collectors everywhere, confiscated all the lands possessed in Djaghir by the Grandees of the Court, and bore an absolute sway in the country.

Such a revolution could not have been brought about, but by a man of abilities. He was, besides, a well-looking, handsome Valuable character of Djiven. man, naturally good, and of an obliging disposition, and although a Syk, he seemed in his belief and practice much inclined to Mussulmanism; for he used to set apart a sum of money for repairing the monuments of the Saints of Cashmir, and for putting in order the gardens and seats that surrounded Who proves a beneficent Prince and a man of letters. them, and served for public walks. He made it a practice every day to give dressed victuals to two hundred Mussulmen, and twice in the month he sent qhoans or tables covered with a variety of dishes to a number of persons abroad. Naturally beneficent, he gave to every suitor that applied, but always according to his station or necessities. Every week he had a day set apart for hearing and entertaining the Poets of Cashmir. Amongst these he set apart five of the most learned ones to write the history of that country, from the first period in which it received inhabitants down to his time*. But their business was only to abridge memoirs. To these five principal historians he added ten men of inferior learning, whose business was to assist the others in composing memoirs, examin­ing Notice of the five Cash­mirian Poets, who are employed by him to com­pile a history of Cashmir. records, and transcribing vouchers. Nor is it improper to mention here the names of these five select men. The first was Mahmed-tö8fic, the liberated, whose vulgar name in the Cash­mirian language was Lala-dji. He had no equal in his time at Cashmir, and I remember this distich of his:

“Let the shaft come out with which thou hast transfixed my afflicted breast;

Let it emerge like one that comes out of a house that has freshly taken mourning.”

The second was Mahammed-aaly-qhan, author of a book entitled Biography of the Poets. He was son to a nobleman of Iran, called Hessam-ed-din-qhan, and was then domiciled at Cashmir, and one of the Imperial Mansobdars of an inferior order*. The thire was Mirza Calender-metin-teqhalluss. He called himself sometimes by the name of Calender, and some­times by the name of Canber*; and his works are said to have amounted to one lack of verses. The fourth was Mohammed-aaly, vulgarly called Panna. There is a fifth, whose name I do not recollect at present.

To return to our history. The Abdaly-king, having set apart a body of Abdalies, and two other bodies composed of Ailats of Qhorassan and of Cuzzel-bashes of Herat, gave them to Noor-eddin-qhan, with orders to bring the Cashmir to a submission; and he directed the Radja of Djamb8 to assist the expedition with a body of his troops, who might serve as guides to the others. This Radja had made it a practice, whenever any army passed through his territory, to quit the plains, and to retire to a mountainous, difficult country, where he eluded every pursuit, sometimes indeed submitting to send a present in money; and as it was impossible to penetrate into Cashmir without Cash­mirians or other guides, and the Syk Djiven had shut up the passage, and placed Cashmirian troops to guard them*, it became impracticable even to approach that country, without the assistance of people accustomed to those mountains. It was with reason, therefore, that the Abdaly-king made an application to the Radja of Jamb8 for his assistance, and he desired to see him at his Court. This request had been made by the channel of Shah-veIi-qhan, the Abdaly’s Vezir, and the Radja’s particular friend; but the Gentoo Prince would not listen to the proposal. At last the Vezir having sent him his own son to be kept in hostage, until he should return safe into his own country, the Radja became easy in his mind, and he gave the information wanted, and added a body of his own troops to serve as guides, throughout those mountainous tracts. The only passage from the Radja’s country into Cashmir is by crossing the Chennav, a river that rushes betwixt two abrupt cliffy shores with so much rapidity and such depth of water that neither man nor animal can pretend to abide its fury. Across this rapid river, the Vezir Shah-veli-qhan, by the Radjah’s advice, ordered a number of tall trees to be stretched from cliff to cliff, to serve as a bridge, whereon the army might pass and the whole passed accordingly; after which the Radja with his troops retired to his own country. There remained a narrow mountainous passage in which the Syk Djiven had thrown his best troops, and these having been driven away at last, after many actions and much bloodshed, the passage was cleared. Noor-eddin-qhan, having pursued the run­aways, made a massacre of them, and without allowing them time to take breath, he arrived with them at the city of Cashmir. Here he was opposed by Djiven himself, at the head of what force he could collect; but after a slight action, the citizens fled. He fled with them, and in his flight he was taken prisoner with the principal men of the country. The King informed of this success of Noor-eddin-qhan, appointed him Deputy-Governor of the whole province, and in the year 1177 he resolved to return to Candahar. Quitting, therefore, the neighbourhood of Lahor, he marched to Cab8l, and this is the last time he came into Hindostan, the present being his seventh expedition into that country. For the troubles, that had arisen in his absence in Qhorassan, proved so very serious, that he found no time to destroy the Syks, and to establish his Government in Lahor and M8ltan upon a sure footing; so that these two provinces, as well as the Tatta, being nearly abandoned, and without a military force, they were invaded again by the Syks, who returned and established themselves firmly in those tracts. Not but that Prince, as well as his ?? and successor (Timur-shah), used sometimes to send bodies of horse into those countries, but it was rather with a view to procure plunder, and to raise contributions, than for any solid purpose; and in fact we see, that to this day, which is in the year 1195, those countries have remained unsubdued by the Abdalies; nor is their authority acknowledged there. On the contrary, the Syks become more numerous and more powerful than ever, have established their collectors in every district oi those three provinces, and they seem to make no account of any enemies whatever. But then they are no more those barbarians we have heard of. Sensible of the advantages of good government, they have put themselves upon the footing of using the husbandman and farmer with the utmost regard and tender­ness; so that those countries are now in the highest degree of culture and population. Nevertheless, the mighty city of Lahor has ceased to be what it was. It has lost its populousness and its beauty. Those crowds of nobility and gentry, with all those learned men that* adorned it, have forsaken its walls, have preferred excile and distress to the dominion of strangers, whilst those that have bowed to the times, and submitted to that humiliation, and to its concomitants, want of employment and want of subsistence, live lurking in the ruins of their tottering habitations. It appears now, (and I am writing in the year 1195) that the forces of that flaming sword of the State, the Valiant Mirza Nedjef-qhan*, Prince of Princes, have pene­trated into those countries, and engaged the Syks in many actions, and made them feel his consequence. However, it is time alone that can determine how these new broils are likely to end. But as we have already said so much of this new power, as well as of the new sovereignty set up by Nedjef-qhan, in the northern parts of Hindostan, we think it incumbent upon us to introduce to our reader some account of the Marhat­tas, those southern conquerors, who now fill so vast a circumfer­ence in that region, as well as in Decan.